From datasets to metadatasets in Stata

Metadatasets are Stata datasets, in files or in frames, which may have one observation per file, per dataset, per variable, or per variable value. Metadatasets can be used to modify a Stata database, or to make a Stata database self-documenting, especially if converted to non-Stata formats, such as HTML or even Microsoft Excel. We present some user-written packages, updated to Stata version 16, for creating and using metadatasets. The xdir package creates a resultsset with one observation per file in a folder conforming to a user-specified pattern. The descgen pack inputs a xdir resultsset, and generates a new variable indicating whether each file is a Stata dataset, and other new variables containing dataset attributes, such as the dataset label and characteristics, the sort key of variables, and the numbers of observations and variables. The vallabdef package inputs a dataset with one observation per label name per value per value label, and generates Stata value labels. The vallabsave package loads and saves value labels from and to label-only datasets, and transfers value labels between data frames. The descsave package creates a metadataset with one observation per variable in a dataset, and data on variable attributes (including characteristics). The invdesc package modifies the variable attributes of the dataset in the current frame, inputting a descsave resultsset in a second data frame to set the variable attributes, and inputting value labels from a dataset in a third data frame. The datasets containing the variable attributes and value labels may be produced as resultssets by Stata packages, or produced manually in a spreadsheet using LibreOffice Calc or Microsoft Excel, and input into Stata datasets using import delimited or import excel.